Harry Peccinotti talks to Filep Motwary

Self-portrait © Harry Peccinotti
Self-portrait © Harry Peccinotti

In the visual world, Harry Peccinotti is the epitome of a Renaissance man. As an artist, graphic designer, art director and photographer, he created a distinctive style in the 1960s that feels as fresh as ever— and is as mimicked as ever—today. His work captures women’s bodies and faces in a graphic, almost abstract way that has earned him the nickname “Mr Close-Up”. Despite a career that has spanned the art direction of Vogue, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, the creation of iconic title sequences for films including Alfie and Chappaqua, the founding of the groundbreaking magazine Nova, the almost single-handed introduction of models of colour into the fashion mainstream, and photographic commissions from the Pirelli calendar to the Vietnam War, the London-born, Paris-based legend was a bit shy when Dapper Dan visited him at home. Continue reading “Harry Peccinotti talks to Filep Motwary”

François Halard talks to Filep Motwary

Self-portrait© François Halard
Self-portrait © François Halard

François Halard graciously agrees to an early-morning interview over the phone from New York. The French-born, continent-straddling photographer has been one of the world’s most highly regarded interior and architectural photographers practically since his teens, and his collaborative résumé is a roll call of legendary American and European artists, editors, fashion designers and art directors. The critic Vincent Huguet’s description of Halard’s work needs no translation: he photographs “en liberté, avec gourmandise, mais aussi avec une forme d’urgence, de nécessité”. Continue reading “François Halard talks to Filep Motwary”

Paolo Roversi talks to Filep Motwary

Self-Portrait © Paolo Roversi

Paolo Roversi is the past and the future in one. He never set out to be a fashion photographer, though he is one of the most referenced in the world. His is the great paradigm of signature; of identity. He is the only photographer who truly owns his colour palette. The young man who left Italy to conquer, by chance, la mode Parisienne has become the inspirational story of our times. Despite his precision and constancy over 47 years of photography, he continues to surprise. His sweet voice salutes me on the phone; my heart beats faster when I ask my first question… Continue reading “Paolo Roversi talks to Filep Motwary”

Walter Pfeiffer talks to Filep Motwary

Self-portrait with mask © Walter Pfeiffer

Walter Pfeiffer has been making pictures since the early 1970s. His photographs and short films evoke both the glamour and the grit of hedonistic youth. His influence is seen in the work of photographers like Juergen Teller and Wolfgang Tillmans, who have achieved the kind of recognition he has never enjoyed. He has published six books with Ringier and Hatje Cantz: odes to homoeroticism, drama and imperfect beauty, measured out in off-kilter crops and that omnipresent flash. Here, he chats with Dapper Dan from his home in Zurich. Continue reading “Walter Pfeiffer talks to Filep Motwary”

Ari Marcopoulos talks to Filep Motwary

Self-portrait with a death mask © Ari Marcopoulos

Over a lengthy career, Ari Marcopoulos has continually shed his skin, like a serpent, to reveal another, shinier skin underneath. His photographs are naked and honest – what you see is what you get. He has been documenting American culture, and subculture, since the early 1980s, and has collaborated with Warhol and Basquiat. While not precisely mainstream, Marcopoulos’ still and moving images are evocative markers of the times we are living through. Over a prolonged inter- continental telephone call, he discusses his three new projects: the camera bag he has designed for INCASE alongside a limited- edition book of unpublished photographs, Now is Forever; a forthcoming show at the Confort Moderne gallery in Poitiers, and a film that features the spring/summer 2011 Yves Saint Laurent collection. Continue reading “Ari Marcopoulos talks to Filep Motwary”

Juergen Teller talks to Filep Motwary

Self-portrait as Santa Claus © Juergen Teller

I first met Juergen Teller at a lunch at Café Marly in Paris in 2004. He had recently shot Charlotte Rampling for the new issue of POP magazine, and five minutes later, in walked Miss Rampling herself. I had not met her before, but I did not think to introduce myself: I felt I already knew her, from Teller’s intimate, opulent photographs. That was just before Steidl published his book Louis XV, another collaboration between Teller and Rampling. We met once more to talk flash, flesh and feeling. Continue reading “Juergen Teller talks to Filep Motwary”